


the fantastic (nay, awesome) adventures of zoro and luffy

by 2pork



Category: One Piece
Genre: (i may have gotten carried away), Assassin AU, Drabble Collection, Gang AU, Gen, Knight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-09
Updated: 2014-10-09
Packaged: 2018-02-20 12:18:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2428430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2pork/pseuds/2pork
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Floppy black hair, scar under one eye, no sense of self-preservation if the grin he’d worn earlier indicates anything. (AU Drabble Set)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the fantastic (nay, awesome) adventures of zoro and luffy

He’s sprawled in a grimy alleyway, matching it in how they both can use a little washing.  
  
 **i. Roronoa Zoro in gang warfare**  
  
Caked in blood and mud, tired as hell, and belatedly wondering if half the blood on him is his, he attempts to lie still for a bit. And then he remembers the kid.  
  
Floppy black hair, scar under one eye, no sense of self-preservation if the grin he’d worn earlier indicates anything. (Although Zoro shouldn’t talk. He’d jumped into the fight unarmed, after all.) There’s something eerie about him.  
  
Slowly, he pushes himself up by his elbows, holding back a wince. A mussed up mop of black is visible from behind stacks of boxes, exactly where he’d last seen it. “Hey,” he calls out in a hoarse voice, makes a mental note of hunting down the bastard who’d throttled him against the wall.  
  
When there’s no immediate answer, he pauses. Part of him wants to be concerned, really. The kid seemed like a good guy, could have been caught while walking home from the grocery store (there had been a lumpy bag thrown somewhere a while ago), cornered into the alley. Probably, he didn’t want to give up his wallet, decided to fight instead. Probably, he had that stupid shit-eating grin on then too.  
  
Zoro had been passing by when one of the bastards pulled out a knife. Barged in with a punch, not his best tactic, but the knife had been dropped and the attention piled on him, like he’d planned.  
  
He frowns, remembering how the kid seemed eager to join the fight. Recalls knocking him out. Must still be unconscious then, if he’s not answering…  
  
“ _Ow, heeeead_ …”  
  
Okay, so he’s a little bit conscious.  
  
When curious eyes turn to him, Zoro schools his face into a blank expression. It’s better than betraying how disturbed he feels when the familiar grin returns to the kid’s face. He doesn’t move, not even when the kid regains some semblance of coordination and scampers over.  
  
“Hey!” he exclaims. “You’re that— guy! I’m Luffy! And you’re awesome!” Luffy – again, Zoro feels like he should be realizing something – pauses, considering, then continues, “I could have taken them on too, but someone must have hit my head hard or something…”  
  
To Zoro’s credit, there’s not a single twinge of guilt. Instead, he asks, “Are you hurt anywhere?”  
  
“Huh? Well, yeah, my head hurts pretty ba—“  
  
“Besides that.”  
  
The kid pokes his own stomach and barely contains a wince. “Not really,” he says, and suddenly brightens up, jumping back to his feet. “Hey! Our headquarters are pretty close by. Are you a member of some gang?”  
  
“No,” Zoro replies warily.  
  
“Good! Then I can bring you there. You know, now that you mention it, you do look a lot like a civilian.”  
  
“Civilian?”  
  
“Yeah. I mean, look. If you were made, then you’d at least carry a gun, right?”  
  
That’s when Zoro recognizes him. He had seen the kid somewhere, in photographs on different newspapers. It was some kind of social function, where the son of a politician had been introduced, but succeeding articles revealed that the kid went missing…  
  
He really should have realized earlier. “Monkey D Luffy,” he says.  
  
Luffy grins down at him, stretching out a hand to help him up. “You know me?”  
  


-

  
“No,” Zoro says as he shirks off the very last piece, glad to finally be rid of the metal.  
  
 **ii. Roronoa Zoro, knight getting out of slightly rusty armor**  
  
Chainmail should be sufficient, and they haven’t encountered much after the dragon nearly succeeded in roasting his companion. Ahead of him, Luffy rambles on, oblivious to the reproachful glare trained on his back. “But it’s going to be so much fun! And it’s probably safe.”  
  
The knight is silent, and when Luffy throws a glance back, he pouts at the other’s unimpressed face. “ _Probably_ ,” Zoro spits out, “is not good enough. I’m supposed to get you to your kingdom alive, in case you’ve forgotten.”  
  
“But, Zoro!”  
  
Oh, good lord, not the whiny voice.  
  
“ _Zorooo_ , have you ever met a coblynau before? They’re harmless! And no one’s going to know unless you tell them,” the boy wheedles. “Because I won’t.”  
  
Zoro rolls his eyes. “If it’s something you have to hide from the king, then it’s likely something we shouldn’t do. My answer is no.”  
  
“It’s yes!”  
  
“I—“ he freezes, the fists he’d threateningly brought up falls back to his side. “I’m not getting into that argument with you, Highness.”  
  
Luffy deflates, his pout more pronounced, and spouts nearly inaudible mumbles, just loud enough for the knight to hear.  
  
“Better a killjoy than beheaded,” Zoro retorts. He prods Luffy onward impatiently, and stays two paces behind in a semblance of propriety. He may have been born a commoner, but the ten years he spent in that godforsaken school and fumbling over utensils weren’t for nothing. He at least knows the basics, and above all, the first rule of knighthood—  
  
 _A knight’s duty is, first, to his king; then, to his country._  
  
And if the red-haired king says, “Bring back that stupid boy of mine, and he’d better be in one piece when I see him,” the order must be followed up to the dotted i’s.  
  
Still, Zoro thinks as he gazes at the dejected back of the wayward prince, that look doesn’t suit him very well.  
  
He sighs.  
  
Luffy straightens up instantly and turns his head, face expectant. “What is it?” he asks.  
  
“Highness, if…” he begins haltingly. “If we reach the town before noon tomorrow… we could— _maybe_ we could go and—“ The rest of his compromise is muffled by the prince’s coat, and it takes him a moment to realize that he’s being hugged.   
  
He thinks, _this is just improper_ , and laughs to himself. The king will probably worry more about what will happen if they do reach the town before noon.

  
-

  
The main street is a poor choice, but all the other ways have been blocked by guards.  
  
 **iii. Roronoa Zoro, assassin on the run**  
  
He skids as he turns the corner, but continues running. The entrance hadn’t been guarded earlier, and he’d gotten past all the men stationed in the building. It was too easy, he’d noticed and paid it no mind instantly. Always, when the targets feel like they’re being clever, they always slip up.  
  
Zoro had grabbed the chance, and the job was done. It’s the exit that’s giving him trouble. He supposes he should be grateful that they only started chasing him after he’d gotten out.  
  
He leaps up a pile of crates and seizes the edge of a roof, twists his legs up to kick at the wall and heaves himself up and over. It’ll be easier to lose them from here.  
  
He jumps to the next roof and hops back down to the ground. Just a few more turns and he’ll be at the gate.  
  
Just a few…  
  
The gatekeeper’s tower comes into view, and he runs for it, slipping into the slightly open doorway shoving it shut. He manoeuvres past the furniture, takes the stairs two steps at a time until he reaches the third landing.  
There, he stops just before slamming into a dark-haired young man, and receives a grin for his effort.  
  
“Assassin,” the other greets, excitement in his tone. It’s dark, but his eyes glitter. “That was fast.”  
  
“The job was—easy,” Zoro retorts as he tries to regain his breath. He steps up to the window and pulls down at the blinds a little. “They’re going to knock on your door soon. What’re you going to tell them?”  
  
“That they’re annoying?”  
  
“They won’t like that.”  
  
The young gatekeeper laughs. “Well, I don’t like them! It’s a fair deal.”  
  
Zoro just shakes his head, but the topic is serious enough for him to continue. “They’ll want to search the tower,” he points out.  
  
“Can’t you, I don’t know, climb to a different room through the windows?”   
  
“Not with more guards watching the tower from outside, idiot.” He slides down the wall, crossing his legs underneath him.  
  
“Some assassin you are.”  
  
Zoro snorts. “And some sanctuary you are,” he says, closing his eyes. “Hey, Gatekeeper.”  
  
“Hm?”  
  
“They’re knocking.”  
  
The young man throws a startled glance at the staircase. He grins at the assassin, impressed, and heads downstairs. No less than five seconds later, he scrambles back up and warns the other to stay quiet, to which Zoro responds with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, right. Assassin. Stealth.”  
  
Zoro meditates as he waits for the gatekeeper to deal with the guards, and if he dozes off a little, no one’s there to glare accusingly at him.  
  
Suddenly, there’s a muffled yell from downstairs, and the sound of something being knocked over.   
  
He shoots up to his feet instantly. Someone’s clambering up the stairs, and as soon as the gatekeeper popped back into his vision, he grabs him around the waist and crashes into the window blinds with his shoulder.  
  
Their landing isn’t smooth, but very few things are for an assassin. The gatekeeper attempts to pull him up, still dazed himself. They’re outside the gates now.  
  
“It’s going to take them probably around half an hour to figure out how to open the gates,” he tells Zoro. “That gives us time.”  
  
Zoro doesn’t answer.  
  
“Hey.” The gatekeeper tugs at his arm, a puzzled expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”  
  
“You weren’t supposed to get caught up in this,” Zoro grumbles. “I was going to hide in the tower until morning, and you weren’t going to be involved past letting me in.”  
  
“Well, it’s not like blaming anyone’s going to give me my job back. You know what? Call me Luffy,” the young man says. “Since you can’t keep calling me Gatekeeper.”  
  
“Zoro,” the assassin offers gruffly.  
  
Luffy nods. “Zoro, then. Let’s go tell your client that the job’s done… but maybe a midnight snack before that, though?”  
  
“… Fine.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is not the end of my Strawhat AUs, but let's just cut the suspense and say it is.


End file.
